The Independence Institute's anti-union media blitz

Summary: In light of a Rocky Mountain News article stating that Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute plans to issue a report on April 14 regarding Gov. Bill Ritter's 2007 executive order authorizing employee partnerships, Colorado Media Matters has documented examples of the think tank and its staffers disseminating false, distorted, or misleading information regarding organized labor through their public platforms in the media.

According to the Rocky Mountain News, Independence Institute policy analyst Ben DeGrow planned to release a report on April 14 analyzing Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter's 2007 executive order "Authorizing Partnership Agreements With State Employees." Colorado Media Matters has documented numerous examples of how DeGrow and other Independence Institute operatives have dispensed false, distorted, or misleading information through the Colorado media to advance anti-labor public policies and viewpoints.

As the News reported on April 11, "Benjamin DeGrow, education policy analyst at the conservative Independence Institute, plans to release a [] report on Monday called 'A Shaky Foundation, a Potential Threat: Analyzing Colorado State Union "Employee Partnerships." ' "

Independence Institute President Jon Caldara and other staffers have used their public platforms in the Colorado media to spread misinformation about a variety of organized labor issues -- for example, by distorting Ritter's executive order and by attacking the purported negative ramifications of House Bill 1072, a measure Ritter vetoed on February 9, 2007, that would have amended Colorado's Labor Peace Act.

Additionally, Independence Institute Director of Operations Amy Oliver and policy analyst Jessica Peck Corry have used public media to attack organized labor efforts in the state without fully disclosing their involvement in the think tank's "Ask First" campaign. Caldara has stated publicly that the effort, which seeks to limit the ability of government entities to make payroll deductions for public employees' contributions to private organizations, specifically targets collection of union dues.

As Colorado Media Matters noted, while appearing as a guest on the February 20 Internet broadcast of RIGHTALK.com's Leave Us Alone, DeGrow mischaracterized Ritter's arguments and actions related to the employee partnership order and stated that because of the order, a variety of unions had "been attracted to the state like opening up a can of dog food and getting your dog to come in."

Following are examples of the Independence Institute disseminating false, distorted, or misleading information through the media regarding organized labor.

1. House Bill 1072

House Bill 1072 proposed revising the Colorado Labor Peace Act to strike the requirement that workers preparing to negotiate a contract hold a separate election of all potentially affected workers in order to obtain necessary authority to make the contract an all-union agreement. Such an agreement would require all workers covered under the contract -- whether they were union members or not -- to contribute money to the union, through dues or fees.

On numerous occasions, Caldara claimed that HB 1072 would have established "closed shops" in Colorado, and that employees would be compelled to "give money to politics [the employee] might not agree with." In fact, a closed-shop arrangement -- under which a union can compel an employer to require full union membership as a condition of employment for new hires -- is illegal in the United States under the National Labor Relations Act, and federal law prohibits a union from compelling an employee to become a full member or contribute to its political efforts.

Examples of Caldara's misinformation about HB 1072 in the Colorado media:

• During his January 22 and January 30, 2007, Newsradio 850 KOA broadcasts, Caldara falsely claimed that HB 1072 would make it easier for a union to establish a "closed shop" in which all employees of a workplace "have to join the union." He also suggested that as a result of the bill's passage, employees would be compelled to "give money to politics [the employee] might not agree with."

• Discussing the bill with state Rep. Robert E. Witwer (R-Golden) during his February 2, 2007, KOA program, Caldara repeated the "closed shop" falsehood and asserted that the bill "forces people to join unions or lose their jobs."

• While discussing Ritter's employee partnership order with nationally syndicated progressive newspaper columnist David Sirota on the November 8, 2007, broadcast of KBDI Channel 12's Independent Thinking, Caldara, the program's host, repeated the falsehood that HB 1072 "would have made it easier for unions to, in essence, close union shops."

The false claim that HB 1072 would allow compulsory union membership also has appeared in an Independence Institute radio ad.

2. "Ask First"

The Independence Institute in 2007 sponsored a campaign called "Ask First" to promote ballot measures barring local governments from automatically deducting from public employee payrolls membership dues and fees for unions and other private organizations. Moreover, Caldara and state Sen. Nancy Spence (R-Centennial) have filed a statewide ballot initiative to block the state government from making such payroll deductions, and Caldara publicly has identified unions as a target of the initiative.

As Colorado Media Matters has noted, Caldara and other Independence Institute staffers used the Colorado media to promote Ask First campaigns in several Colorado cities without disclosing the campaign's affiliation with the think tank:

• During her October 9, 2007, 1310 KFKA broadcast, Oliver touted Initiated Question 200, which would have limited payroll deductions for public employees in the city of Greeley, without disclosing that not only did the Independence Institute launch Ask First to promote passage of the measure in Greeley and other cities, the free-market think tank also "gave money and manpower" to help place the question on the ballot, according to a July 7, 2007, Greeley Tribune article. As Colorado Media Matters noted afterward, Oliver finally told listeners on October 22, 2007, "[Y]ou all should know, I work for the Ask First Greeley campaign."
• Additionally, despite her on-air criticisms of Greeley City Council candidates who accepted contributions from organizations opposing Initiated Question 200, on the October 9, 2007, broadcast Oliver touted a city council candidate who supported the initiative without telling listeners that she personally had contributed money to that candidate's campaign.
• While guest-hosting KOA's The Mike Rosen Show on November 5, 2007, the eve of the election, Caldara urged voters to pass Ask First ballot issues, but failed to disclose that his organization had launched initiatives in several Colorado cities. Caldara asserted that Ritter's employee partnership order was "a first step ... to bring mandated unions to all levels of government in Colorado," then stated, "So if you're in Greeley, Centennial, Englewood ... now you know why [Ask First is] necessary."

• Then as guest host of Rosen's show on November 6, 2007, during a discussion about Ritter's order, Caldara raised the "possibility" that the Ask First campaign could "go statewide," but again failed to disclose his organization's involvement in the local measures.

• In an April 3 "Diary of a Mad Voter" blog entry on The Denver Post's PoliticsWest website, Corry referred to Ritter as "the source of the rift" between "Colorado's union bosses and business leaders" over competing ballot initiatives, but similarly failed to mention the Ask First campaign or the Independence Institute's own anti-union ballot initiative.

3. Employee partnerships

Through the media, Caldara and other Independence Institute employees frequently have misled on Ritter's employee partnership executive order, often echoing each other in distorting its substance, possible ramifications, and the circumstances of its announcement:

• On the November 8, 2007, Independent Thinking broadcast, Caldara misleadingly suggested that Ritter's Friday, November 2, 2007, announcement of the order was done "so that it didn't get as much attention." Oliver also repeatedly distorted the circumstances of the release of the order, claiming on several occasions that after issuing the order Ritter "duck[ed] out of town," purportedly to evade media scrutiny. However, Ritter reportedly notified The Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News of the order before he issued it and gave an interview to the News the day it was announced. After issuing the order, Ritter also gave an email interview to the weekly Denver Business Journal, which published his responses to its questions on November 9, 2007.
• On her January 24 program, Oliver misled on the timing of Ritter's order and allowed Face the State managing editor and conservative activist Brad Jones -- who worked as a research associate at the Independence Institute under Corry's direction -- to claim that in issuing the order on a Friday afternoon, Ritter sought to "dupe" the public "by jumping into the end of a news cycle" when he thought "nobody [was] looking."

• Later, on her April 7 broadcast, declaring, "I don't care what anybody else says" about the timing of Ritter's order, Oliver repeated the assertion that Ritter issued the order "late on a Friday afternoon" because he didn't "want to answer a question right away."

Further attacking the employee partnerships order, Caldara has distorted the circumstances surrounding a May 2001 order by Ritter's Republican predecessor, Bill Owens, barring the state government from making automatic payroll deductions except for the charitable Colorado Combined Campaign. Caldara claimed or allowed Owens to claim that Owens had candidly presented the order as one that specifically would block the state from deducting union membership dues on behalf of its employees. In fact, Owens' executive order did not specifically mention unions or dues.

• While guest hosting Rosen's show on November 6, 2007, Caldara did not challenge Owens' assertion that "I issued an executive order -- which I was very proud of -- which said, we're not going to collect union dues for the unions." However, Owens' Executive Order D 007 01 did not specifically mention unions or dues, and did not receive news coverage at the time it was issued, according to a search of the Nexis database. Furthermore, Owens released his order on the Friday preceding Memorial Day in 2001.

• Appearing as a guest on November 11 broadcast of KNUS 710 AM's Backbone Radio, Caldara repeated the claim that "Governor Bill Owens eight years ago put together an executive order that said that unions in Colorado will have to ask their members directly and that the state payroll system will not be sucking money out of their workers' paychecks for them." Although Owens' order had the effect of implementing so-called "paycheck protection," the order made no specific reference to unions or dues, and did not even contain either word.

• In addition, on her November 7, 2007, show, Oliver derided as "absurd" Ritter's contention that state employee partnerships allowed under his executive order might have prevented the state from spending hundreds of millions of dollars on flawed computer systems implemented under Owens. However, numerous media reports quoted state employees and union officials as saying that such partnerships provide a structure for workers to alert managers to potential problems.

4. Union money

In addition to the misinformation related to House Bill 1072 and employee partnerships, Caldara on his April 2, 2007, broadcast falsely claimed that for his 2006 re-election, state Rep. Mike Merrifield (D-Manitou Springs) "received a staggering 70 percent ... of his campaign war chest from organized labor." In fact, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, only 29.5 percent of Merrifield's total campaign contributions were from organized labor.

—C.H. & C.K.